Ruin has come to our nation. You remember our glorious city, a shining gem of harmony, gazing proudly from it's stoic perch on the

mountain. I spent many a year in that secluded city of dreams surrounded by decadence and luxury, and yet I began to tire of conventional

extravagance. Ancient singular tales told of old magics of fabulous and unnameable power. With relic and ritual, my sister and I bent every

effort towards the recovery and excavation of these long burred secrets, exhausting much of the nation's coffers on sordid work and sturdy

picks. Eventually, in the grimy crags of the mountains lowest foundations we unearthed that damnedable door, that portal to deluding evil.

Our every hoofstep unsettled the ancient earth, but we were in a realm of death and madness. In the end, I alone fled, crying and wailing

through those blackened archads of antiquity until consciousness failed me. You remember our glorious city, petulant and harmonic, it is a

festering abomination! I beg yo! Return here! Answer my call! And deliver our nations from the ravenous clutching shadows of this

darkened city.

Beseechingly
Celestia

~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~

Along an old seldom used road sped a rickety old wagon pulled forward relentlessly by an withered old stallion, whose thin desiccated limbs still maintained a near constant sprint along the forest flanked mountain road. His every ragged breath coming out almost as a wolfish laugh as he sprinted down the road pulling his two passengers. The passengers in question, two young mares who glanced nervously out the dark windows at the forest filled with twisted vines and half seen shadows stalking through the brush, held their weapons close to themselves as if fearing the other would leap upon them or some malicious specter might appear before them.

The pair flinched as the entire wagon rocked with a sound unnervingly similar to shattering wood and glanced out the windows half expecting to see a lumbering beast slamming itself against the wagon. Instead they saw only the fading light of the sun filtering through the thick branches the reached out over the road like thousands of twisted claws. One tried to produce a nervous chuckle only for the sound to die almost before it had been uttered.

"It was always obvious that things had gone to shit," one of the mares said trying and failing to force a smile, "Kind of sends the whole message home seeing the roads like this."

The other mare opened her mouth, perhaps to respond, only to be interrupted by another loud wooden crack accompanied by a jolt that tossed both mares into the air. The crack was soon accompanied by a resounding crash as the pair were tossed about inside the small cabin of the wagon, smashing into each other and every other solid surface inside as the wagon twisted, flipped and finally slowly skidded to a halt. For a moment there was only silence both inside and outside the wagon as the world paused to observe its latest tragedy. The silence was soon replaced by the sound of keratin against wood as one of the mare swiftly kicked the door off the broken wagon and staggered out battered and bruised, but surprisingly whole.

The mare shook her head and blinked, brushing the strands of her purple mane that had escaped her pony tail out of her eyes and straightening out her ruffled orange coat and checking her wings for obvious damage, "Well that was unpleasant, you still okay in their Babs?"

The second mare spilled out far less gracefully, clutching her helmet in her teeth as she massaged her head dizzily obviously still stunned and disoriented from the crash. She spat her helmet into her tan hooves and grimaced at the large dent in her helmet before sliding the piece of metal back over her short cropped magenta mane, "I think okay is a somewhat relative term." The mare named Babs said slamming her visor into place, "How's the driver?"

The orange pegasus glanced at the crumpled front of the wagon where a couple grey withered limbs protruded from beneath the crumple wagon and the deep furrow in the earth. Her eyes traced the ten meter long furrow in the trail behind the wreck, taking notice of the thick chunky carpet of red with the earthen trench. "Looks like he managed to run himself over and turn himself into road pizza."

"Rather flippant way of putting it don't you think Scoots?" Babs asked her mouth twisting between sorrow, relief, disgust, and worry.

"Trust me I've seen worse," the pegasus shrugged, "I'm personally glad he's not split in half and screaming." She smiled as her companion's face visibly greened, she sobered quickly, "Either way we need to move now, I hope you've already grabbed your sword because we need to move now."

"Seems a bit abrupt, can't we take a moment to catch our breath and gather our luggage?" Babs asked turning away from the mangled corpse to pick up two small pouches.

"No, you saw those things in the trees, and damn near anypony who's still got the guts to live within a hundred miles of the city know that this forest is crawling with bandits. With how loud the crash was, I bet all the beasties and baddies withing a couple miles are sprinting this way to loot the wreck."

Babs paused for a long moment before sighing, "Fine, I guess it's better to travel light since we're hoofing it anyways. Lets get moving."

"Not along the main road," Scootaloo mutters pushing her old friend off the road and into the bushes, "I saw enough while the crazy driver was sprinting like a vampire bat out of tartarus to know that the main road is all but completely over run by bandits and beast. We'll need to stick to the side paths until we meet up with the others."

"Fine then, since you know so much about traveling these roads, you lead." Babs snorts moving away from Scootaloo.

"Tartarus no, you're the one with all the armor little ms holy knight, you lead."

"But I don't-."

"Just follow the game trail here," Scootaloo rolled her eyes, "We aren't that far from where the bitch supposedly set up her little hovel so we won't be out here for more than maybe an hour tops."

The pair walked in near silence as Babs stumbled through the thin undergrowth in her ill maintained huaberk's chainmail jingling loudly while Scootaloo followed silently behind her ears folded back and a deep frown on her face. The dark woods continued to echo with unsettling sounds as the precious sunlight overhead continued to slowly fade into dusk as the pair marched through the woods. One constantly looked about her eyes dancing almost expertly to gaze into various hiding places in the growth around them as the other shuddered inwardly at the gloomy atmosphere and alien smells that surrounded her. It wasn't long until one spoke up to try and calm her nerves.

"So Scoots, what have you been up to the last few years?" Babs asked narrowly avoiding stepping in a small but deep hole. When Scootaloo didn't answer she continued, "It's been like what six years since we heard anything from you. I was actually kind of surprised to see you at the last stop. I kind of figured you must have gotten killed by one of those thugs that have been making their home around-"

"Can you please shut up?" Scootaloo hissed.

"Why are you being so hostile? I just want to-."

"And I want you to practice some noise discipline. Seriously did you not learn how to do that while you were spending time in your big fancy temple in Manehattan? Or do you want to attract-"

"Hello ladies," a gravelly voice called from behind a small forgotten graveyard off to the side of the trail.

"The various vile cutthroats that live in this shit hole," Scootaloo finished with a growl.

From behind the tombstones emerged a grizzled pegasus his face and mark hidden behind a green hood and cloak. What the cloak didn't hide was several large knives and equally large scars on the stallion's body. He wore a toothy smile showing missing teeth and a couple large blades were already fixed to his wings as he easily moved in front of the pair.

"Now ladies I'd like you to go ahead and-." Scootaloo forcefully ended the conversation, this time with a rusty knife slicing across the stallion's neck, drawing a deep bleeding wound, "Fucking cunt!" he gurgled.

The Stallion leapt after the speeding pegasus his own blades flashing, but finding only air. He growled angrily and rose to give chase when a rusty longsword pierced him from behind. The stallion gurgled a surprised, "oh," before collapsing to the ground in a heap. Babs grunted as she yanked her sword out of the stallion and looked sadly down at the dead stallion before spitting her sword into its sheath to yell at Scootaloo, "Scoots what the actual tartarus?"

"What?" Scootaloo asked expertly flicking most of the blood off her knife before tossing it back into its sheath, "He was going to rob and kill us, I killed him first, and stop yelling, this moron probably has allies nearby." Scootaloo quietly muttered to herself as she approached the still bleeding body.

"We didn't need to kill him though!" Babs argued, "We had him outnumbered and could have easily forced him to back down."

"Right let him shank the next pony he found, also you're the one who dealt the killing blow if I recall correctly," Scootaloo began to nose around the bandit's body.

"You slit his throat, he was already going to die a slow death. And if I just let him bleed out like a beheaded chicken he might have killed you too. Mind, you kind of had it coming but-. What in Faust's name are you doing?"

"Looting the moron's corpse duh," Scootaloo rolled her eyes clutching a large bag under her wing, "Asshole had a fair amount of change on him. Also Babs, real tribalist remark, I thought the church preached equality."

Babs sputtered as Scootaloo began to walk forward again. Babs followed, "I'm not being tribalist, you know damn well what I meant. And stop trying to change the subject, you just murdered a pony in cold blood and looted the body and you're okay with that?"

"Well yeah," Scootaloo shrugged, "Also it was really more preemptive self defense. Besides, just leave the goods laying there? It's not like he was using it anymore or like he'd earned them through any better means. We will probably need the shinies in here when we get to the Nation Slayer's little base of operations, I seriously doubt ponies are going to be willing to give us free stuff just because, 'we're mighty heroes here to save them from the cruel dark brought on by the false gods of old.'"

"Don't you go misquoting scriptures at me," Babs snarled, "I-"

"Noise discipline."

Babs made an angry sputtering as they rounded a cluster of overgrown tombstones to reveal a small campsite. Well calling it such might have been a stretch, it was more a single ratty brown tent half collapsed under an old tree. Scootaloo quickly swept through it like a gust of wind turning the camp into a mere memory. She clutched another bag that jingled when it moved and tossed it onto Babs' back causing the mare to squawk in surprise and cast a glare at the smaller pegasus.

"Seriously how did this guy manage to find so much bling? He was a nothing and complete moron." Scootaloo muttered as she resumed the trail.

"Are you planning to loot everything we come across?" Babs asked.

"Yeah, you aren't? I thought the great and glorious Church of Faust loved it when it's little tin soldiers brought them donations after a mission."

"The church does not loot and pillage the areas it liberates!" Babs shouted angrily, "We are a force of good and anypony in our ranks who is caught looting is harshly punished."

"Good thing there's always someone like me around to pick up the blood money then right?"

Babs' coat turned a rather interesting shade of purple as she sputtered and roared, "What are you implying?"

"Babs noise discipline," Scootaloo said silently pushing open a rusty gate on a overgorwn stone wall.

"Don't you 'noise discipline me! Are you imply that the church sends looters along with its knight to pillage the lands it protects?"

"Babs, not now." Scootaloo hissed.

"Yes now, I get that you don't seem to to like the church but that is no reason to make such horrid-"

"Hey, who's that?" a voice like rumbling thunder boomed.

"Great job Babs they noticed us."

Babs took her eyes off Scootaloo and glanced up to see a small clearing in the forest with an absolutely massive earth pony who's body was completely covered in scars and unicorn mare half his size drawing what looked like one of the new blunderbuss weapons. They were both looking right at her and Scootaloo.

"You see this why you practice noise discipline when you are in a dangerous area and don't start shouting because someone offends your delicate sensibilities." Scootaloo said as she quickly drew her knife.

"They look like they's got monies boss," the earth pony rumbled as he rose off the crate he'd been sitting on, "Can we kill them and eat 'em?"

"Sure why not, they look pretty easy." the unicorn chuckled.

"Any complaints with killing these assholes?"

"May the light of the great goddess Faust shine upon your souls and deliver unto you your justice due." Babs chanted drawing her sword once more.

"Take that as a 'no'," Scootaloo dawned a smile wickedly similar to that worn by the towering brute.

Dashing forwards like an orange blur, Scootaloo rocketed at the unicorn with the gun. The unicorn flinched, but a massive hoof blocked Scootaloo, "Where do you think you're going little fil-YOUCH!" The stallion shrank back blinking dumbly at deep bleeding wound in his leg. The leg wound successfully distracted him from the charging mare who sliced another gash into the stallion's chest.

The towering stallion roared, grabbing a whip from his side and raining down a series of lashing blows on the pair of mares, the leather of the whip covering the pair with stinging bleeding wounds. A loud boom accompanied the snap of the whip as the unicorn recovered enough to spray the pair with shot. The two mares grunted, but Scootaloo drew a blunderbuss of her own and fired at the surprised pair, causing them both to yelp in pain as the metal bullets gouged at their tender flesh. Taking advantage of the break in the enemy's attack Babs again slashed out at the brutish earth pony, her blade digging deep into his leg, almost completely severing limb.

The giant staggered and drew his own tiny pistol and pointed it right at Babs chest and fired. Babs gasped and reeled back as the bullet easily ripped through her armor and slammed into one of her ribs. The big stallion smiled at her pain and then blinked in surprise as the orange mare was in his face, her eyes full of fire and brimstone as the stallion suddenly found it very hard to breath and wondered why his vision was growing so dark all of a sudden.

The earth pony toppled over as the unicorn mare blinked in surprise, when she saw the armored earth pony quickly recover from her wound and charge her. The unicorn fired a hurried shot that missed by a good foot and felt her weapon tumble away as the mare's longsword dug deep into her shoulder. It hurt like hell, but if she just grabbed her gun she could just shoot these mares again, they were both injured so one more shot would probably fell them, she just had to-.

And then Scootaloo shot the mare in the head just below her horn, the unicorn dropped like a sack of oats and was still.

"Well that hurt," Babs moaned falling to her knees, "That hurt a lot."

"Oh suck it up you city slicker," Scootaloo laughed seeming to ignore her own numerous injuries as she poked through the bodies, "You'll live, none of those injuries are life threatening and we can stitch you up proper when we reach the town."

"Which is how far away?" Babs grunted, slowly rising back to her hooves.

"Literally at the bottom of this hill," Scootaloo said pointing to a small gathering of wooden huts. She also seemed to have a few more bags of loot. "Think you can soldier on for that long your majesty?"

"Oh give it a break, please," Babs groaned taking a few shaky steps before glancing at the box the large stallion had been using as a seat, "What not going to crack open the loot trunk?"

"Pfft, that thing is both obviously trapped and empty. Besides, we already got like three grand from these three goons and are suppose to earn five grand just for showing up at town." Scootaloo turned towards the shacks and called over her shoulder, "Come on Babs the other are probably worried about us at this point and we are long overdue for a reunion."

"Yeah we really are," Babs chuckled sadly.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders, Heroes of Equestria?"

"Cutie Mark Crusaders, Heroes of Equestria," Babs said a genuine laugh escaping her.

"Glad to see that church life hasn't wrung all the fun out of you yet," Scootaloo laughed.

"Faust dang it, would stop with that?"

"Oh, blasphemy! I'll have you fixed yet." Scootaloo laughed as Babs threw her a poisonous look.

Author's Note

Well that's the end of chapter 1. I'm really looking for feedback on this story as I want to make it all that it can be and I'm worried that I might end up making it to dark or light hearted at times. I'm really depending on you, no not you the guy behind you, yes of course I mean you, to tell me what you think and why you think this story is great, awful, or just so terribly meh.